Bicycle Customization Survey
 

Bike Riders!

My name is Wessel. I am a Dutch student currently doing my bachelor thesis in International Business.

I am looking for bikers to fill in a survey about their preferences when purchasing a new (custom) bike. It is aimed at everyone riding bikes, at all levels and disciplines.

Because my account is new, I am not able to post a link to the survey. If you are curious about the survey and are willing to help me with my research just sent me a message and I can share the link.

Your contribution might help to shape the future of buying bicycles!

If you have questions or comments please let me know

Thank you in advance!

You might want to clarify what it is that you mean by "custom" and "customization." To some, "customizing" their bike could mean merely changing out the saddle, choosing a different color for their bar tape, or a couple of stickers here and there. To others, it could be a complete rebuild with different components and a refinish of the frame.

Custom is generally a custom bike built for the client from the start building a frame or at least from frame up but some people take it to mean swapping small parts or putting on a sticker or something like that as sjanzeir said. Would also love to hear clarification

Also to post links all you need is a measly 10 posts which is easy to do getting active in the various active threads going on right now. Get posting in other threads and you will be able to easily get those 10 posts in just a couple days. You can also get a sense of everything let people get to know you and what you're about.

Yes, please define customization.

New handle bar tape?
to
A printed bike to a users physical dimensions?
or
All of the above

These first timers who post that they need feedback for a survey they are doing for a thesis always seem suspicious to me. Sound more like either someone working for a market research team or worse someone trying to insert a link to malware.

There's custom and then there's "custom"

Depends on who your audience is when you say "custom"

​​​​​​https://www.motortrend.com/features/...lowrider-bike/

To start off, aiming at everyone riding bikes needs to be thrown out. It is impossible to do customization for everyone, because everyone, basically a really large portion of the population, is not interested in the additional cost that is associated with customization. You can't customize and compete with low cost imports.

But customization is an interesting concept, if that customization includes actually manipulating frame geometry, to some degree, to impact ride and handling.

I believe Shimano has received a patent for a wireless braking system. It would be pretty amazing to be able to make tweaks, swap out bars, wheels, gearing and then use an app to get everything to run smoothly.

Such a departure from read reviews and a ride around the parking lot test ride.

Of course, some of this technology is not there yet, and it would have to come in at sub-20lbs, and the result may not as good as a single specific use bike, but it would be a pretty cool concept. And if it is a thesis...

John

Hey John,

Thanks for your feedback! Some brands offer customization without any additional costs, like Propain Bicycles. Their core business proposition is selling configurable bikes and is actually the reason who quite some people choose this brand (including myself). Also this brand is a Direct to Consumer brand and is why, even with customization, you get a lot of value for your money.

Customization by manipulating frame geometry is indeed an interesting concept! It's more difficult to execute but some brands do offer this like ENVE bikes and Atherton bikes.

Interesting comment about technology! Looking forward to see what the future has to offer to make our rides more convenient and better suited to our needs.

I'll add that a lot of them don't seem to have a lot of knowledge of the bicycle market or of bicycle riders themselves. The poster is in the Netherlands, and might be know a lot about the bicycle culture and market in that country, but posts this request in a 'general' forum on a bicycling website that's predominately used by folks in the USA, Maybe he/she should focus on the local market in the Netherlands and neighboring countries.

There it is!

Time for mods to drop the ban hammer.

Sounds to me like the OP's International Business program should have included some rudimentary training in survey development and sampling. The original posting indicates to me that there is no understanding of what actual info is being sought and how to get it. I can't imagine the results will pass muster for any purpose - academic or practical.

Also, to the OP: You've identified that your beginner status on this forum limits your ability to use this forum for your purpose. In other words, you cannot accomplish what you want to!! So, understanding this, maybe you should have taken a few days and surmounted the VERY SIMPLE threshold of posts that would allow you to post your survey. It would take you a couple of days and very little time - and could be enjoyable to you if you are a bicyclist and actually want to get this project done.

Sorry to OP, but you're not off to a good start here.

I appreciate your caution, but this is pretty common: Business and marketing students are expected to complete a "capstone" project that shows basic literacy and data analysis ability. Conducting a survey satisfies the requirement to collect some kind of market data.

I find it hard to believe a professor would want a student to conduct an online survey which can easily be skewed and spammed. Do any actual pollsters use online polling? Nope.

In my view the point is not to discover new knowledge, but to teach the basics of research and communication to a beginner. No professor reads term papers expecting to learn something new.

These papers predate electronic information gathering.

You aren’t very good at this are you.

.